Broadband in Athens. Cross your fingers.

It's wasn't quite the moon landing, but the folks preparing for the Olympics had a hell of a network setup job. According to the AP, the formerly state-owned phone company there has set up 3,000 ISDN lines for journalists, 750 miles of fiber optics, 6,000 high-speed computer connections and 5,000 broadband data connections. (Not quite clear what the difference is there, but I'm guessing Ethernet vs. DSL).

Here's hoping it all works, and stays working. Greece has been the butt of many anxious jokes recently, as people feared they wouldn't get even the basic competition facilities built. I was there last summer, and they had prettified the main boulevards, and that was about it.

But the news does highlight a new benefit that these international events have. In the old days the Games and things like the World Fair left behind stadiums and monuments. Now they're leaving behind telecommunications infrastructure that host cities can use later.